Colonial Country Club Sells for $2 Million

CC Club Holdings LLC bought the property Nov. 13 from Colonial Country Club. The sale followed a vote in September by club members to sell to CC Club Holdings.

James W. Russell Jr. signed the warranty deed in lieu of foreclosure as president of Colonial Country Club.

Russell also acted as beneficiary in CC Club Holdings’ $2.5 million deed of trust, assignment of rents and security agreement in conjunction with the purchase.

The 371.5-acre property, at North Germantown Parkway and Interstate 40, includes 36 golf holes, six tennis courts, swimming pool, clubhouse and other amenities.

The club’s facilities, built in 1972, total 58,430 square feet. The Shelby County Assessor of Property’s 2013 appraisal is $3.6 million.

The sale also included a 1.3-acre vacant parcel.

Source: The Daily News Online & Chandler Reports– Daily News staff

Christ Community Health Services Breaks Ground in Frayser

Leaders of Christ Community Health Services broke ground Tuesday, Nov. 19, for a new health center in Frayser.

The center at Thomas Street and Frayser Boulevard will work in tandem with Christ Community’s existing clinic at 3124 N. Thomas, in the nearby Northgate shopping center.

The $5 million, 19,000-square-foot center is scheduled to open in the fall of 2014 and will include a health clinic, dental services and a pharmacy.

Construction of the center is being paid for with a grant. The land was bought and donated by a private donor.

– Bill Dries

Literacy Mid-South Moving to Playhouse on the Square

Literacy Mid-South is moving to Playhouse on the Square effective Dec. 1, leaving its transitional space at United Methodist Neighborhood Centers.

The literacy organization will be housed on the fifth floor at Playhouse, which will be its new home after five months in a temporary space in search of something more permanent. The group’s executive director, Kevin Dean, sent out notice of the move earlier this week and said the group looks forward to “new collaboration potential with our office mates,” such as Project Green Fork, Indie Memphis and others.

Literacy Mid-South earlier this year moved to United Methodist Neighborhood Centers from the Cooper-Young area, a move that shrunk its space from 10,000 square feet to about 1,700 square feet. That change resulted in savings that the group plowed back into literacy programs.

– Andy Meek

Restore Medical Moving to One Commerce Square

A small but growing medical-equipment maker has selected the One Commerce Square building Downtown for its corporate headquarters.

Restore Medical Solutions will relocate from its current office space at 62 N. Main St. in January, occupying around 4,250 square feet in One Commerce Square.

The One Commerce space will house the company’s executive and support staff, while its assembly and distribution operations will be housed at the Memphis Bioworks Foundation building on South Dudley Street.

Restore Medical’s new headquarters is another ray of light for One Commerce Square and the Downtown office market as a whole, which has been saddled with a vacancy rate of 29.6 percent.

This year, Pinnacle Airlines decided to relocate to Minneapolis and vacate 170,000 square feet in One Commerce Square. However, the state of Tennessee, which is vacating the Donnelley J. Hill State Office Building, is leasing 100,000 square feet in One Commerce.

Restore Medical, founded by Flynn and Ryan Ramkhelawan, moved from Atlanta to Memphis in 2012 to participate in the inaugural class of Memphis Bioworks’ ZeroTo510 accelerator program. Among other developments, the company invented a surgical tray and method that increases speed and efficacy in reprocessing sterile surgical instruments.

– Amos Maki

Officials Expect More People Directed to TennCare

While Tennessee residents have been slow to buy health insurance through a new online exchange, state officials said Monday that the number of people being directed to the state's expanded Medicaid program is higher than expected.

The online insurance marketplaces and the Medicaid expansions are part of President Barack Obama's health care law.

Officials had projected that the exchanges would identify nearly 47,000 people who are eligible for TennCare but not enrolled.

However, TennCare Director Darin Gordon told Gov. Bill Haslam during a Monday budget hearing the figure will more likely be about 52,000 for fiscal year 2015.

"It is concerning," Gordon said. "But at this point, we don't have anything to cause us to revise our numbers."

Just in case, Gordon is asking the governor for an additional $180 million in the agency's budget. He stressed the importance of TennCare maintaining a healthy reserve, which is currently about $315 million.

"If ... we start seeing increases in those numbers on eligible but not enrolled, we need to make sure we have adequate reserves to be able to make sure that it helps make those rough places smooth," Gordon said.

So far, only about 1,000 people have purchased health insurance through the online exchange in Tennessee. Part of the problem may be due to issues with the website to purchase the insurance.

There are about 982,000 uninsured people in Tennessee. Before Tennessee officials decided earlier this year not to participate in a partnership with the federal government in establishing a health insurance exchange, they estimated that about 300,000 could participate in the insurance marketplace. Some estimates put that number as high as 600,000.

– The Associated Press

US Employment Costs Up 0.4 Percent in Third Quarter

Compensation costs for U.S. workers rose modestly in the July-September quarter as the cost of benefits such as health insurance rose more rapidly than wages and salaries.

The Labor Department says that compensation increased a seasonally adjusted 0.4 percent in the third quarter compared to the April-June quarter when compensation had risen 0.5 percent. Wages and salaries, which make up 70 percent of compensation costs, rose 0.3 percent in the third quarter while benefits were up 0.7 percent.

Over the past 12 months, compensation costs have risen a modest 1.9 percent. The Great Recession, which saw millions lose their jobs, has kept a lid on wage growth. That has meant low inflation overall, a factor that has allowed the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates low to boost the economy.